What do you think of my golden salmon boy? His name is Eddie! (From Ed Hess) he is 4 months old.
I was thinking of breeding him to my golden cuckoos and then line breeding back to him. He's the only golden salmon I have.

Eddie, read your post, how goes your search for golden salmon marans? I love this color variety and would like to work toward a flock...

Thanks,
Laura

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Hi Laura, There are three closed flocks of correctly bred Golden Salmon Marans in the US. Marie Cantrell in MT; Bev Davis in FL and a lady in Grayling, Mich. Don't count on getting any birds from them. They will just keep putting you off. Search elsewhere. Try Connie Zullo at Harmony Hill Farm in Barnesville, Georgia.1094 HarmonyHillFarm 343 HarmonyHill Ranch PT, AI Clean Rd Barnesville 30204 , 770-358-0577Her GSM hatch 75% Black Tailed Buff and 25% Golden Salmon Marans. So buy 3 dozen eggs from her and you should get maybe 8 GSM. Do not cross that strain with any other strains. Work within that strain. Connie founded her strain with outcross stock so there is much variation there already. Inbreed to set type and get the birds pure-breeding for GSM. Treasure the Black Tailed Buff when they show up. They should carry the desired Mahogany gene and be valuable to other BTB breeders. Do not cross BTB with GSM. You will see a lot of mismarked cockerels in this gene pool. That's just the sex-linked gold/silver thing at work. Just cull them and move on. Do not breed them back into your gene pool, they cannot help you and will pollute your gene pool with mismarks.
When you start getting properly colored females then you are getting somewhere. Go by the female color, not the male. It is possible to have the males hide undesirable colors in their plumage because there is so much black there. But the females reveal all. Analyze your males by the females he throws. When you start getting properly colored females from a male, then you know you are getting there with your males.

Almost 2 years go, I shipped a couple of stunning pure BTB hens to a gentleman in Ohio whose f[rst name is Russ . They came from Golden Salmon parents which carried BTB genes. The neat thing about them was they carried the Mh gene which gave them that lovely rich color. Something not often seen in BTB Marans. Their parents came from Harmony Hill farm in Barnesville Georgia, whose Golden Salmon Marans were known for siring both GSM and BTB Marans, a very valuable thing. Anyway, I know Russ's info is on the Net as is Harmony Hills Farm.
Golden Salmon ( e+/e+ s+/s(-), is recessive to BTB. So when BTB shows up from GSM parents, it is pure BTB. I shipped them out because I was looking to breed GSM and couldn't use them. Russ had a cock which needed hens. I don't know how his breeding program is progressing, have not heard from him in many months as I gave up on GSM and moved to Light Sussex which I really like.
Best,
Karen Tewart
in western PA, USA

Where did the Mh gene come from if both parents were GSM? If I researched the purebred cock's ancestry correctly, and I think I did, I believe he was a carrier of the Mh gene while manifesting proper GSM coloring. I believe he only carried one copy of Mh as he sired both BTB and GSM. I do believe he was a proper GSM and not crossed with Wheaton. I do not believe there was any Wheaton in the parents of my birds.

I humbly request that those who are working on a GS project....please....do not sell your "BTB" females as BTB. For those who are working on the BTB variety, having mixed up genes in the BTB pool is a nightmare. BTB are not supposed to be e+/e+ but there are folks selling birds that hatched out wild type but mature to look like BTB and are then sold as such. Correct BTB are wheaten based. Thanks

Question: since gs are pure wild type, they are very much like Welsumer, light brown leghorn, or red and silver dorking? Wels have an Mh though, yes? So gs are genetically closer then to leghorns and dorkings? Since it is nearly impossible to get a gs marans, how hard would it be to re-create it? Would that an option?